Xbox TV-style projects to launch in June

As well as the confirmed line up, a lot of projects are still in development for the series.

Microsoft’s Xbox Originals project will kick off in June this year with a series of TV show format-like programmes.

Two separate Halo-based projects with Steven Spielberg and Ridley Scott attached to them are part of the line up along with the six-part documentary series Signal to Noise which features the recent Atari 2600 E.T. cartridge excavation as its first episode.

According to Microsoft's Xbox Wire, the full range of shows will encompass dramas, comedies, animation, unscripted shows, documentaries and live events. Microsoft also intends to keep this video content exclusive to the Xbox One and Xbox 360.

’We are developing premium, original content for the Xbox community which is an audience we are incredibly respectful of,’ said Xbox Entertainment Studios president Nancy Tellem. ‘We believe Xbox Originals should embrace the way our fans think about traditional TV.’

Each show issued as part of Xbox Originals will also include interactive features tailored specifically to that broadcast.

Alongside the two Halo projects and Signal to Noise, the initial line up includes an eight-part unscripted series featuring footballers Thierry Henry and Edgar Davids called Every Street United, a drama featuring robotic servants called Humans in collaboration with Channel 4 and a broadcast of the 13th Bonnaroo music and arts festival.

Other projects in development include Deadlands, a series based on the alternative history Wild West pen-and-paer RPG, Gun Machine, a series based on a Warren Ellis novel and Winterworld, a live action series based on the graphic novel series of the same name.